The Bitter Reality of Afghanistan – with Malalai Joya

Behold the effect of white phosphorus bombing on a young child’s skin. In May 2009, Afghan lawmaker Obaidullah Helali, who headed a delegation investigating this massacre from US bombing in the western province of Farah, confirmed that it took the lives of 95 children.

The talk from Malalai Joya was recently hosted in Sydney by Pip Hinman on behalf of the Stop The War Coalition – stopwarcoalition.org – and chaired by Kellie Tranter, lawyer and human rights activist. The visual material comes mainly from Malalai, with a few additions, notably from rawa.org, site of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

Malalai Joya presents Afghanistan in stark contrast, from a woman’s and a child’s perspective, while digging deep into the issues of opium, corruption and bribery.

I had to go digging on RAWA and elsewhere when Malalai started talking about things that weren’t illustrated in her slides. While searching, I came upon another “slideshow” of 76 photos, published here by The Week on May 2, 2012. Flicking through them, I began counting the female faces. There was only one; that of Hilary Clinton.

Malalai Joya presents Afghanistan in stark contrast, from a woman’s and a child’s perspective, while digging deep into the issues of opium, corruption and bribery.